Officials: Crisis Aid Not Meeting Needs

When Linda Jacobs` car was hit by a drunken driver last July, the broken neck she sustained in the accident turned her world upside down.

Today, Jacobs, 41, is in a halo neck brace, unable to work and on the brink of becoming homeless.

``If somebody had told me that this was going to happen to me, I would have said there`s no way that I can possibly exist a month,`` said Jacobs, who received an eviction notice this week. She must leave her Lauderhill home unless she pays $1,500 in back rent.

Jacobs said she is especially frustrated because doctors do not know how long she will have to wear the brace, which is screwed into her skull in four places.

Her plight is not unusual, Broward officials say. But her problem, they say, underscores a serious deficiency in Florida`s hodgepodge emergency crisis network: The state has no long-term public assistance program established to help people who, like Jacobs, suddenly find themselves unable to care for themselves for months at a time.

Such people end up going from agency to agency, filling out stacks of forms as they scramble each month to scrape together enough to survive.

``Social service agencies in Broward are collectively able to sustain a person, on a case-by-case basis, between six and eight months,`` said Daniel Schevis, who heads Broward`s Social Services Division. ``After that, a lot of people do reach the point of falling through the cracks.``

With financing for assistance programs being slashed at federal and state levels, county officials have begun studying the possibility of expanding emergency assistance programs, Schevis said.

``Many states have public assistance programs, but the mood among the general public in Florida has been against raising taxes,`` Schevis said.

In Broward, much of the available help is offered only once a year to applicants. Often, the requirements are so stringent it is extremely difficult to qualify.

``A lot of the programs will only accept single women who have children,`` said Grace Koch, a Florida Medical Center social worker who has helped Jacobs track down some assistance. ``Others require that you be unemployed for a full year or already evicted.``

As result, Koch said, many wind up with no place to turn. ``There are hundreds of Linda Jacobses out there who have exhausted their resources and they`re living on the streets,`` she said.

``The resources are so finite that unfortunately, a middle-aged person who is in crisis with no children is going to suffer,`` he said.

Broward Assistant State Attorney Stan Peacock said the gap in the state`s social services network is widening. ``I handle an average of 50 to 60 calls a day from people looking for help,`` said Peacock, who heads the Victim Advocate Unit, which tries to get restitution for crime victims.

Peacock has filed an application on behalf of Jacobs for assistance through the state victims` compensation fund, which provides up to $10,000 in restitution to crime victims. But because of a backlog, it could take a year before Jacobs receives a response, he said.

Jacobs, who had held down two jobs as a waitress, said she only had personal injury protection when her car was hit last July 23 by a drunken driver with no car insurance. Jacobs had no insurance that would cover lost wages.

Instead, for the past eight months she has survived by applying for help through various social service programs, pleading with friends and relatives for money and getting a roommate.

Twice, the Lauderhill Emergency Assistance Program paid a portion of Jacobs` $600 monthly rent and her electric bill. The Broward County Social Services Emergency Assistance Program paid a portion another month, and Operation Blessing, a church-affiliated organization, helped with other expenses. Jacobs also became eligible for food stamps -- $99 a month.

But the help has not been enough to cover her monthly expenses. She received an eviction notice this week from her landlord, who lives in Spring Valley, N.Y.

``We are very sympathetic to her problem, but we have a mortgage to pay,`` said Edith Seymore, the landlord.

Jacobs said she is bitter because there is not more help for people like her.

``There`s a problem when you have to be pregnant or have little children to get some kind of immediate help,`` Jacobs said. ``If you`ve worked hard all your life and you`re single and have an accident like I did, you`re out of luck if you live in Florida.``